A new study found that while both men and women who go to speed dates hope to snatch a date or romantic partner after the rounds, it is actually the women who takes the lead while men try to please them to be chosen.
Speed dating participants are given around 3 minutes to get to know each other before they move on to another date. While there is no statistic yet showing the success of speed dating in terms of meeting someone for a long-term relationship, majority of those who join the events, both men and women, reported a positive experience.
Researchers at Stanford University in California decided to observe what really happens between men and women during speed dating by analyzing their language. Twenty pairs of men and women agreed to wear recording devices throughout 1,000 four-minute speed dates and shared their dating experience afterward, Sky News reported.
"It turns out what generally happens on these speed-dating evenings is that the women are the deciders," said Professor Dan Jurafsky, study leader and language expert, and computer scientist from Stanford University, California.
"At the end of the evening, men tend to say yes to almost everybody and women are much more selective."
The researchers noticed that women talked more about themselves using "I" most of the time while men tend to let them do the talking and used "You" more. Men also seem to make women feel that they are supportive and empathetic by using phrases such as "Oh, that happened to me too" or "sorry to hear that."
The findings of the study are quite similar to another study in U.K. suggesting that women are twice as choosy as men during speed dating. The researchers found that women would choose to see an average of two men again after the event, according to BBC News.
The U.S. study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Jose.
